Nine Crimes
by The Sky Pirate Girl
Summary: The first half of her: forever condemned to fight the demons inside the stone. The second: forever to choose the one who was her polar in essence… forever apart from the one she had loved in the beginning. Because in the original version of the myth, Midoriko's soul had shattered and she was given a false heart. MirKag, au, reincarnation (more than one), infidelity, choice.
1. Chapter One

**Disclaimer: **I do not own neither InuYasha, nor the picture used in the cover.

**Words**: 1 670

**Genre**: angst, spiritual, romance,

**Synopsis**: The first half of her: forever condemned to fight the demons inside the stone. The second: forever to choose the one who was her opposite in essence… forever apart from the one she had loved in the beginning. Because in the original myth, Midoriko's soul had shattered and she was given a false heart. Keywords: au, reincarnation (more than one), soul mates, infidelity, choice

**Pairings**: MirokuKagome, Midoriko/past reincarnation of Miroku, Kagome/ future reincarnation of Miroku, minor InuKag and Miroku/Sango

**Tagline**: _If your mind had to choose between your soul and your heart, which would it choose?_

* * *

**Nine Crimes**

The priest's heart belonged to the demon-slayer, this was a well known fact. As was the truth that the reincarnated priestess' heart belonged to the half-demon.

But his soul, his spirit addressed her soul, her spirit and helped it awaken. He helped her find depths in this world that were beyond love, beyond time.

When did he begin to crave her touch? When did her hands begin to soothe his wounds?

.

Fire. She ached for fire, she loved fire. Fire was the thing that warmed her. Fire was the thing she had found, when the world had become a bit too static.

But she was the wind. It was her essence. Wind was what helped her breathe. Wind was what she had searched for, when the world had become a bit too confusing, a bit too chaotic, and she - a bit too lost.

If she lost her heart, she would live. She would be reborn again, she would find her heart again, the world would continue.

Since when did she care about _him_ so much that his touches did not make her jump, did not make him smile in a way that suggested he was joking?

.

When they had bonded their spirits together, it was meant only as a precaution, as a training - so they could make the group stronger. Who could have known that this was such a serious matter? Who would have known that they'd find something stronger than love?

He had become so accustomed to her presence, to their link, to the way they worked together, that whenever she left, it was like a part of his soul was extinguished, a part of his wind was sucked out and cut away from him.

If he lost the fiery demon-slayer, he would lose his heart. He would be broken, he would die.

When had _she_ become so important that whenever she left, the priest _knew_ that if his priestess did not return he would simply fade?

His? Yes, that was right. She was more his than she was anyone's.

And they both belonged to the wind. The wind would be their end one day, this was their fate.

But if it was wind, if it was their essence, then so be it: let their souls be their end.

.

"Houshi-sama," she said, looking at his eyes through the fire. _What's the matter? You are unsettled._

Her priest shook his head. _You will go away again, won't you?_

She titled her head, her expression wistful. _I can't every stay forever, you know that._

He averted his eyes. _I don't want to admit it, but I need you by my side more than I need to breathe. Your absence makes me feel weaker. But it wasn't always so, and this scares me._

She also looked away. _You think I'm not scared by this... this all-consuming feeling?_

"I hate it when they do this," Shippo commented. Sango idly turned to marvel the trees in the forest, hiding her pained expression.

"Shut up, idiot!" Inuyasha yelled, hitting him on the head.

.

She chooses the half-demon. She always does. Every time, without a fail. The priest helps her remember her past reincarnations, helps her realize that she's more than Kikyou could ever be, because she is _more_. The reincarnated priestess remembers bits and pieces of different lives that had once been hers. And she always chooses him, _always_.

Because fire is what her heart aches for.

But she is not the past. She is the future, and she promises him this, kisses it into his skin, breathes it into his mouth, swears it into his heart that is not really his.

This time, she wishes she could choose her soul over her heart.

He knows every detail of her skin, every detail of her spirit. He knows that she won't, and this is why their lie is so tragic.

"You're wrong though," she whispers one night when they hide from the rest of the world, their bodies and spirits naked to one another.

"About what?"

"I did choose you, once."

He tensed. "When?"

"The first time."

.

"What are they doing?" Inuyasha asks in irritation, as Kagome and Miroku stand in the distance, frozen, their palms pressed upon each other as if upon a mirror.

Kaede just looks ahead. "Their souls are intertwining, she's lending him her inner strength."

Inuyasha does a double-take.

"Don't you know? She's the one thing that's keeping his Kazaana from swallowing him."

Sango suddenly stands up. "What?! He never told us...!"

"Sango..."

"He never told us that he had so little time."

Shippo looked franticly around. "But Kagome-chan is keeping him alive, isn't she?"

The old miko nodded. "You know, I've never seen two souls so alike."

"Kaede-sama!"

.

_I need more time with you._

**_Time is always the problem, when it comes to you._**

_I fear that I don't care about my heart that much anymore._

**_What? Did I hear correct? For the first time you would choose your soul?_**

_I choose you._

**_We don't have the time._**

His eyes are sad, hers are passionate and resolved.

_I will save you. You don't always come to find me. I never know when I will see you again._

**_Will you choose me again, next time?_**

_It doesn't matter if I choose you, until the Shikon no Tama exists._

_._

"Damn it! Where's Kagome at a time like this?" Sango curses, watching Miroku battle his demons, his Kazaana growing bigger and wider than usual. "I'm going to go pick her u-"

"Kagome's already here!" Inuyasha said, sniffing the air. "She'll come soon."

"His wind will end him by then, " Sango angrily said, as she sliced another one of the demons. "Either it, or the miasma."

"No, she's running very fast. I think she has already sensed that he's in danger." Inuyasha angrily finished a demon off. "Damn it, Kagome!"

.

He was standing there, on his knees, but he would go on. He wasn't afraid. She was coming.

Her warmth enclosed his back and suddenly a hand put the rosary back on his hand. It was already too late though.

"Miroku," his priestess whispered, not crushed, not grief-stricken, but in a soothing way that showed him that she was here, that she would smile for him and breath life into him until there was no him to breathe life into. She eased him onto her lap.

He smiled. Sango was next to him, as were Inuyasha and Shippo. All three of them had tears in their eyes but _she_ didn't. He wasn't afraid.

"I love you," he whispered into her hair, so that only she would hear. "More than love. More than time. More than choice."

She kneeled and planted a kiss on where his heart that didn't belong to her was, and remained there. "More than warmth."

"But you need warmth, Kagome."

"I _can't_ live without my air."

"But _you are the wind_," he breathed, breathing the wind out of his body.

He was gone. She heard his heart stop beating.

"MIROKU!" Sango screamed.

_She_ didn't scream - screaming over someone you lost was far too trivial, far too dramatic. They didn't _do_ dramatic, they never did.

But she did feel her soul pulsate so strongly that even the outer world saw it. And suddenly there was light flying toward her, hundreds and hundreds shards ready to pierce her.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled. "What's going on?"

Shards coming together, merging into a perfect little stone.

"At this rate... the jewel is complete!"

"But how...?"

"The jewel was always a part of her soul, ever since the time of Midoriko."

Their happiness was short-lived, as the jewel cut right into their friend's chest and she froze.

_What is your wish?_ the stone whispered into her, as her heart took it back once more, purifying it.

_Disappear_.

.

"How did you bear with the choice?" Kaede asked, before she departed. "Your heart has always belonged to Inuyasha, and your soul..."

"My soul has always belonged to me. _He_ just brought out the strength in it by being so similar to it."

"You-"

"He never made me choose, Kaede. I sometimes despised him for that. If only he had..." The priestess sighed, preparing to jump. "Only, isn't it the saddest word in the world?"

"Be safe, onee-chan," the old priestess told the younger one.

"You too... sister."

.

Life in her era wasn't so bad. She could easily fall back into old routines, forget she had ever gone to the past, forget Inuyasha, forget Shippo, forget Sango, forget _him_. She would be strong enough, her soul would not bow to death, as the mountain would not bow to the strong wind.

.

Her grandfather told her that her distant cousin would arrive today, to help with the shrine. She had been wary ever since she heard it, but today, as she felt him near her, she knew.

She knew her wish had been granted.

The ties that had been torn away in the most brutal way, the ties that had been severed, knotted themselves back together, soothing their tortured spirits. He was coming home, and so - so was she. His aura was a balm for the hole that the wind had made in her soul.

He was coming. She was not hurting anymore. She did not feel weak anymore.

The jewel was gone and her soul was free once and for all. Mirodiko's soul (her soul) finally, _finally_ wouldn't need to fight anymore.

"Kagome," he breathed, and fell on his knees. _I remember._

Slowly, she went next to him, kneeled and brushed away his bang that was getting in his way. _You're here._

The priestess threw herself into the priest's arms, her heart beating into his heart, their breaths merging together as one.

"Don't let go," he whispered, and this was all she had waited for, lifetime upon lifetime.

She shook her head, not bothering to lift it from the crook of his neck. "I won't."

Together, they were stronger.


	2. Chapter Two

_**A/N**: A fluffier prequel/sequel to the story._

**Bedtime Stories**

"Don't you know, Miroku-sama?" she says softly, eyes drinking in the very sight of him as if he would disappear any moment. "The story of what happened just after Midoriko created the Shikon no Tama?"

"No one knows it, Kagome-sama." he says in a calm and composed voice, but his breath catches in his throat. "The original legend hasn't survived."

She looks away, into the dark horizon and his heart flutters because he has the feeling that he knows the story that she is about to tell him for the first time.

"The jewel wanted her to wish for something, anything, so it tore away her beloved- he was a priest too - and sent him into his next life. Midoriko's heart broke and in her grief she wished for herself to always find her love in her next reincarnations. Victorious, the Shikon no Tama devided her soul into two - one part of her spirit was sent to be reborn, but the other part was imprisoned inside of it, forever condemned to fight the demons and bring balance."

"Did she find her love, the other part of her?" Miroku wants to know, some vague despair depriving him of his air.

"No," Kagome says, wistfully looking at him (why does she always look so wistful when their gazes met?) "The Shikon no Tama had given Midoriko another heart to replace her broken one. Her new heart always chooses another man, and will always continue to choose him, until the jewel exists."

Ah, Miroku thinks. He understands now.

"Then I shall help you destroy the Shikon no Tama," he swears, because he wants Midoriko's soul to be whole, and because, maybe, the priest's spirit also aches for his priestess. "I certainly don't care to make any wishes and Inuyasha's wish, truthfully, sucks," he says as he lay on the ground, leaning on his palm. "In addition to this," he continues, as he draws her in, next to him, "we both already know that no true wishes are granted by it."

Kagome nestles into his arms (Inuyasha and Sango are not present at the moment and Shippo is already sleeping soundly next to them). "No true wishes are granted," she repeats into his mouth.

"We ourselves must be the ones to fulfill them," he breathes and closes any remaining distance, false hearts and all set aside for time being.

.

"But Mamma," Kaede whines as the woman turns to put the lights off. "You can't just leave it with such a sad ending! What happened after the priest died again and Midoriko's reincarnation defeated the jewel and went back home?"

Kaede's mother, who was also a priestess in her family shrine, smiled. "You don't want to wait until tomorrow night to hear the true end?"

"Nooo~!"

"Very well then," she said, as she sat down on the corner of Kaede's bed again. "Midoriko's soul received back her true heart and soon met the priest's new reincarnation. The priest remembered his past life, his past curse, and all the days full of fighting demons by the priestess' side and they had a happy reunion. The priestess graduated school and went to study theology in the university with the priest, for remember this, Kaede-chan: education is a very important thing-"

"And what happened _after_ that?" Kaede was impatient to know.

"They got married," Kaede's father said as he entered the room. "And made a few babies... well after lots and lots of practice, of course."

"_Darling_!" Kaede's mother warned, although Kaede didn't understand what could she be so scandalized about.

Kaede's father waved a hand. "Sorry, sorry," he told Kaede's mother. "I just came to tell you that your brother called and said that he'd come visit us with his family next week."

Kaede's mother groaned. "Oh, no... you know what happens when the twins meet Souta's kids-"

"Chaos and doom," Kaede's parents said in the same time.

"And a lot of cleaning," Kaede's mother added.

"_Well_," Kaede interrupted as she inwardly deemed herself ready to go to sleep and shifted into a more comfortable position in her bed. "That's because my brothers are stupid. But don't worry about them, Mamma, Papa, _I_ will make sure they behave this time." And she promptly closed her eyes.

"She got that from you- you were always the mediator in the group," Kaede's mother said. "And I think that the twins got their mischievousness from me."

"From you?" Kaede's father replied, incredulous. "Now, now, miko-_sama_, why don't we go to bed and let us see who is the more mischievous one."

Kaede heard a laugh and a playful slap. "_Houshi__!_"

"_Ouch," _Kaede's father said. "My love, you really don't know your strength, do you?" A pause. "Seriously though, I think it's time for the twins and for Kaede to have more baby brother(s) and/or sister(s)."

Kaede groaned in irritation. "Guys, I don't want any more brothers and sisters. Get away from my room and let me sleep."

"Now, she got the bossiness from you," Kaede heard her father, also a priest, say to her mother as they exited the room.


End file.
